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(CNN Spanish) --
The Federal Prosecutor's Office for the Southern District of New York and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced this Friday that Colombian Carlos Fernando Melo was extradited from Colombia on Thursday.
According to a statement from the Prosecutor's Office, Melo "allegedly conspired with foreign terrorist organizations to provide them with firearms and explosives for the purpose of facilitating attacks in Colombia, including a possible kidnapping and murder of a DEA agent and detonating a bomb in the embassy. of the USA in Bogota”.
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Melo appeared before a judge on Friday and pleaded not guilty, his attorney told CNN.
The lawyer said that for the moment they will not issue any further comments.
The 58-year-old Colombian faces charges of participation in a narcoterrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices during and in connection with the narcoterrorism and cocaine importation conspiracies.
The first charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison;
the second a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison, and the third a maximum of life in prison.”
According to the statement from the Prosecutor's Office, Melo would have revealed in 2019 an undercover agent who was trying to buy explosives for the ELN and machine guns for the FARC, given that these two guerrilla organizations were allegedly planning actions that included the possible kidnapping and death of a DEA agent. and bomb attacks on the US embassy in Bogotá.
(By then, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia were already demobilized after a peace agreement with the government, although dissent from that organization had already emerged, made up of factions that did not accept such agreements).